Just another WordPress.com site

Occupy: Seventh Most Innovative Company

Before Occupy, very few looked at social movements as innovative companies; however Fast Company has named the Occupy movement as the seventh most innovative company. Occupy has demonstrated the qualities considered by Fast Company to be innovative: small d-democratic, transparent, tech savvy, design savvy, local and global. Occupy has paved the way for other organizations, such as non-profits, to find ways to make a splash and be heard even when the big corporations have deeper pockets.

The Occupy movement quickly spread from a social media engineered demonstration to a full on play to work towards removing the big pockets from the government and putting an end to corporate greed. Those involved in the movement have used innovative strategies to help reach people across the nation and the globe.

As Fast Company contends “Occupy has meaningfully changed the global conversation on austerity measures, putting greater focus on how these initiatives might harm the greater bulk of the populace.” The conversation that was started in New York’s Zuccotti Park continues and the inequality of wealth in the country has become a political campaign topic on both sides of the fence. By using the internet, Occupy has been able to harness the energy of the web and utilize the internet’s capabilities to help shape a dominant culture which makes the movement possible according to Occupy Wall Street’s philosopher-in-residence, Shen Tong.

Tim Pool and Henry Ferry were two men who contributed to the transparency and tech savvy capabilities of the movement. The men, part of the Other 99, were responsible for the live feed streaming out of Occupy Wall Street during its time in Zuccotti Park and even during the raid of the encampment on November 15, 2011. The coverage at one point drew 20,000 simultaneous views. Technology allowed Pool and Ferry to capture the movement as it unfolded and give a unique insider’s perspective to the movement. The technology enabled those not at Zuccotti Park to still be connected to the movement.

By starting from the ground up, the Occupy movement has shown how it is possible for organizations to remain viable while still placing an importance on transparency and democratic ideals. The Occupy movement works toward making a more fair future for all those around it. Occupy has utilized technology not available to social movements in the past to move beyond the simple “protest” and into an innovative organization utilizing all means to move the conversation about equality and fairness forward.